Sheriff's deputy wants his lawsuit settlement done

Saturday

Feb 27, 2010 at 2:00 AM

GOSHEN — The lawyer for an Orange County sheriff's deputy wants a judge to order lawyers for the county and Sheriff Carl DuBois to sign off on a settlement of the deputy's federal civil rights lawsuit, contending that the deputy's former adversaries are "stonewalling."

OLIVER MACKSON

GOSHEN — The lawyer for an Orange County sheriff's deputy wants a judge to order lawyers for the county and Sheriff Carl DuBois to sign off on a settlement of the deputy's federal civil rights lawsuit, contending that the deputy's former adversaries are "stonewalling."

Deputy Skeet Dunn settled his suit against DuBois and the county on Jan. 14, as the case was about to go to trial in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

Dunn sued DuBois in 2008, contending he was denied promotions because his mother, Barbara, is a staffer for state Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, R-C-Blooming Grove, who's been an occasional critic of the DuBois administration. Barbara Dunn also worked on the political campaign of the sheriff's GOP primary opponent in 2006.

The terms of the settlement were supposed to be confidential, and it was supposed to be signed, sealed and delivered to Dunn's lawyer within 30 days for a final review.

The lawyer, Chris Watkins, told U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin in motion papers filed Wednesday that Watkins had to repeatedly prod his adversaries in the case for a draft of the settlement. When he received an "unfinished" draft on Feb. 17 — two days late — Watkins says it no longer included the confidentiality provision.

He also said it included another, unnamed term that Dunn's side hadn't agreed to and a clause that required Dunn to repay the settlement if he breached any of its terms.

On Feb. 22, Watkins said, a finished draft of the agreement arrived at his office, but it included "broad terms which are subject to interpretation and difficult to discern," and it made delays possible because the settlement had to be reviewed and signed by the judge, instead of an agreement among the three lawyers.

Lawyers for the county couldn't be reached because of Friday's snowstorm. Richard Golden, a former county attorney who represents DuBois individually, said Friday that "the last I knew was that a settlement agreement was being forwarded to him (Watkins) in the mail" this week.

Watkins has asked the judge to order the county to respond to his demand within a week.

He also wants the county to pay $700 in lawyers' fees, for the work Watkins did on Wednesday's motion.

omackson@th-record.com

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